THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, April 20, 1996 TAG: 9604200368
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
Trying to recapture the law-and-order issue from President Clinton, Sen. Bob Dole on Friday berated the American Bar Association and Clinton's judicial appointees as lenient liberals who together have protected the rights of violent criminals over their victims.
Laying out a major plank of his presidential campaign, the likely Republican nominee charged that several federal judges appointed by Clinton have shown ``an outright hostility to law enforcement.'' Dole also warned that re-electing the president would lead to more rulings that rip down the ``guard rails'' intended to protect society from criminals.
``America has a choice this November,'' Dole told the American Society of Newspaper Editors during a luncheon address. ``We will continue down the path this administration has set us on - a liberal experimentation in our courts - or we'll regain the common sense and the common wisdom contained in the very clearly written prose of our Constitution.''
Dole targeted four Clinton appointees, calling them an ``all-star team of liberal leniency,'' and said that just one more Clinton appointment to the Supreme Court could make it ``the most liberal court since the Warren Court of the 1960s.'' Dole has voted for most of Clinton's nominees, including those for the Supreme Court.
The Senate majority leader told newspaper editors from across the country that the ABA has a record of ``liberal activism'' and should be stripped of its role of reviewing potential judicial appointees.
If elected, Dole said he would appoint a non-partisan panel that would include police, prosecutors, victims and legal scholars to advise him on judicial appointments.
The Clinton campaign and the bar association responded by accusing Dole of playing politics and picking a bad day to do it - the first anniversary of the bombing that killed 168 people at the federal building in Oklahoma City.
Dole lashed out at four judges appointed by Clinton - District Judges Harold Baer of New York and Leonie Brinkema of Alexandria, Va.; and appellate Judges Rosemary Barkett of Miami and H. Lee Sarokin of Newark, N.J. - who he said ``seem intent on dismantling the rule of law from the bench.''
In response to a question, Dole said he voted against the appointments of Sarokin and Barkett, but for the other two. He explained that the Senate's confirmation process doesn't always allow for careful decision making. ILLUSTRATION: NORFOLK JUDGE ON LIST
District Judge Raymond Jackson of Norfolk was among those on Dole's
so-called ``Hall of Shame'' list of Clinton appointees. The reason,
a fact sheet said, is that Jackson dismissed federal charges against
a youth charged with armed robbery because he said there was no
federal interest in prosecuting the youth.
by CNB